The present invention relates to vehicle seats that fold flat to a substantially horizontal load supporting position and more particularly to such vehicle seats that move to such a substantially horizontal load supporting position as the seatback member is being forwardly folded over the seat cushion member.
Multi-seat vehicles, such as vans, minivans, sport utility vehicles, and the like, typically have middle (second row) and rear (third row) vehicles seats that are placed rearwardly of the driver""s and front passenger""s (first row) vehicle seats. The second and third row seats are typically selectively removable and replaceable through a large rear or side door in order to ready the vehicle for carrying cargo. Removal and replacement of these vehicle seats tends to be somewhat difficult and requires a considerable amount of effort on the part of the user, especially with respect to the middle vehicle seat.
To overcome this problem and so as to maximize cargo carrying capabilities, many second and third row seats, and even some first row passenger seats, are configurable from an upright occupiable position to a substantially horizontal load supporting position, whereat the back surface of the seatback acts as a load supporting surface, by means of forwardly folding the seatback member over the seat cushion member.
A significant problem encountered during the forward folding of a seatback member over the seat cushion member is that of interference between the headrest of the seatback member being forwardly folded with a part of the vehicle""s interior disposed immediately in front of it. For instance, a front passenger seat headrest might hit the dashboard upon forward folding of its seatback member. A second row seat, or a third row seat, might hit the rear of the seatback member disposed immediately in front of it. Such interference precludes the seatback member from forthwith reaching its fully forwardly folded position, which is unacceptable.
One prior art patent that discloses an apparatus that overcomes the problem of interference between the headrest of the seatback member and a part of the vehicle""s interior, as described above, is U.S. Pat. No. 6,371,558, issued Apr. 16th, 2002 to Couasnon, entitled Fold Flat Vehicle Seat, the teachings of which patent are incorporated herein by reference. The Fold Flat Vehicle Seat comprises a seat assembly mounted on a moveable track member that slidably engages a fixed track member. As the seatback member pivots forwardly and downwardly towards its fully forwardly folded position over the seat cushion member, a link arm member connected to the seatback member engages the end of a guide slot in the fixed track member, so as to preclude further forward movement of the link arm member. Continued forward folding of the seatback member to its fully forwardly folded position, causes the link arm member to push the seat assembly rearwardly to a predetermined rear longitudinal position. When the seat assembly is in its predetermined rear longitudinal position, the seatback member can reach its fully forwardly folded position without contacting another part of the vehicle""s interior.
While it has been found that the Couasnon Fold Flat Vehicle Seat works quite well, it does have some limitations associated with it. Firstly, the link arm member is quite lengthy, and accordingly is not adaptable to all vehicle seat situations. Further, it tends to intrude into the passenger envelope during forward folding of the seatback member, which is undesirable, from the standpoints of passenger interference and passenger safety (e.g. pinching of fingers, etc.). Also, due to the specific geometric limitations of the link arm member in conjunction with the seatback member, the maximum rearwardly longitudinal travel of the seat assembly that can be induced by the Couasnon link arm member is about one hundred millimetres, which is not sufficient for larger vehicles.
Secondly, depending on the longitudinal position of the seat assembly, there may tend to be a gap between longitudinally adjacent seats that are in the fully forwardly folded position. Such gaps tends to permit objects to fall between longitudinally adjacent seats, or to become caught between them during loading. Such gaps are undesirable, and accordingly should be minimized, or even be made nonexistent.
Thus, it is an object of the present invention to provide a fold flat vehicle seat that is adaptable to various vehicle seat configurations, irrespective of the specific vehicle seat.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a fold flat vehicle seat that does not significantly protrude into the passenger envelope during forward folding of the seatback member.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a fold flat vehicle seat that does not interfere with passengers during forward folding of the seatback member.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a fold flat vehicle seat that is safe for passengers during forward folding of the seatback member.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a fold flat vehicle seat that is capable of significantly more rearward longitudinal travel than prior art mechanisms of similar functionality, during forward folding of the seatback member to a fully forwardly folded position.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a fold flat vehicle seat that has utility in larger vehicles.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a fold flat vehicle seat that is relatively inexpensive to manufacture, as compared to prior art vehicle seats having similar composite functionality.
In accordance with one aspect of the present invention there is disclosed a fold flat vehicle seat comprising a movable track member slidably engaging a fixed track member and having a seat assembly mounted thereon for longitudinal sliding movement of the movable track member and the seat assembly relative to the fixed track member along a longitudinal axis. A track lock means is operatively interconnected between the movable and fixed track members and movable between a locked configuration whereat the movable track member is precluded from moving longitudinally relative to the fixed track member and a released configuration whereat the movable track member is permitted to move longitudinally relative to the fixed track member. The seat assembly includes a seat cushion member mounted on the movable track member and a seatback member mounted on the seat cushion member for forward folding about a seatback pivot axis between a substantially upright occupiable design position and a substantially horizontal load supporting position. A seatback member latch means is operatively engaged between the seatback member and the seat cushion member to selectively control the forward folding of the seatback member. A downwardly and rearwardly sloped ramp means is operatively mounted in fixed relation with respect to the fixed track member. A drive link assembly has a ramp contact member and is operatively mounted on the seatback member for translational engagement of the ramp contact member with the ramp means, such that as the seatback member is forwardly folded about the seatback pivot axis from the upright occupiable design position to the substantially horizontal load supporting position the track lock means moves to the released configuration, and the ramp contact member moves downwardly and rearwardly along the ramp means to thereby cause rearward longitudinal movement of the seat assembly relative to the fixed track member to a predetermined rear longitudinal position.
Other advantages, features and characteristics of the present invention, as well as methods of operation and functions of the related elements of the structure, and the combination of parts and economies of manufacture, will become more apparent upon consideration of the following detailed description and the appended claims with reference to the accompanying drawings, the latter of which is briefly described herein below.